An Open Letter to Martin

In just about 3 weeks, I’ll have the privilege of traveling to Adacar, Uganda with a team of 10 other people through the organization, Children’s HopeChest to meet this guy for this fist time. His name is Martin, he is 15 years old, so I guess he is, and has been a teenager for a couple of years. I’m going to be honest here: teenagers make me break out in hives, mostly because they know more than me about the important stuff: celebrity gossip, cellular phones and pop music, and that makes me feel insecure and sweaty. Oh well, I think I’ll be sweaty there anyway so maybe I can hide my inherent fear behind a floppy hat. My care package for Martin is ready to go. It’s got a t-shirt, a couple of pairs of underwear, art supplies (I know he likes to draw), a harmonica (something he can annoy his grandmother with), and a deck of Uno cards. Uno cards are universal, right? I only know a handful of things about him, purely based on the description I received from Children’s Hopechest, so it will be awesome to get to know him a little bit more. He doesn’t know I’m coming, so I’m sending him this cyberletter to prepare him.

Dear Martin,

I pray for you every day. You know those letters I send you about stuff in the Bible? I really believe it because I’ve seen it work with my own two eyes. I see God’s hand of provision, His hand of protection and I see His hand of love. He loves you and wants you to know that. I’m coming to show you that you are set apart and loved. I haven’t met you yet but I know that you are an awesome kid. You probably like sports, but I’m really bad at sports, so you and I can play cards together.

I’m hoping you can teach me a few things–maybe sports? Or maybe a song in your language, or maybe you can just show me what you do every day.

I know I’m sending this digitally, so try to act surprised when I get there. See you (really!) soon. I’m looking forward to it.

with love,

Rachel

*If you’d like to start a relationship of your own with a child almost as terrific as Martin. Click on one of the links above to get started. Children’s HopeChest is an awesome organization to partner with.

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One thought on “An Open Letter to Martin”

awesome. i'm so excited for you and for martin…you'll have to share with me more later about how to keep conversations going through the written correspondence you have with him…my teenage compassion child & I write back consistantly but translation seems to take almost 4 months…by then we've forgotten what was said in the last letter…anyway, kind of funny what i posted about around the same time you hit publish…